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Thursday, February 24, 2011

Thank you BLIZZARD! This is A M A Z I N G!
Announced on MMO Champion for patch 4.1 Zul' Aman and Zul' Grub are coming back as 5 man heroic instaces. They will drop high ilvl epic trinkets but the good news is the mounts are coming back as rare drops.
Anyone else excited?

Yep guys, the first major content patch of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is almost completed it's development stage and we are getting ready to push some early updates onto the Test Realms. So you may ask: What will be there in 4.1 Test Realms (I believe you will do so right?)? So, here it comes!

Remnants of the Gurubashi Tribe
Originally released in Patch 1.7, the classic 20-man raid Zul'Gurub will open its gate once again, bringing new stories, new encounters and fully refined items! Zul'Gurub is now a level-85 Heroic 5-man dungeon, to help the Cataclysm dungeons provide a higher tier of contents. Players may find level 353 epic items in this Heroic dungeon. You have to meet a mininum average item level of 346 to enter it.

The Return of Zul'Aman
The fan-favorite level 70 10-man raid Zul'Aman is also reborn as a level-85 Heroic 5-man dungeon. Zul'Aman and Zul'Gurub will both appear in the Heroic Dungeon list in the LFD tool, providing level 353 epic loot. You also have to meet a mininum average item level of 346 to enter.Since Zul'Aman is back, you might be curious on whether the rare mounts will be back? Yes, we're proud to annouce that new rare-drop Raptor, Tiger and Warbear mount will be available, while the old mounts still have their unique beauty in hand. We will share a lot more on obtaining the new mounts.(Source)

Now I'm not really upset of the resusing that is going on in Cata so far, and I think this is GREAT idea with this. Yes I know the mounts won't be as rare anymore but really, its a pixel. I know I was short of getting the Bear about 3 times while it was doable. Maybe the RNG gods will smile on me with this one.

There will be other mounts put in game, but I'm really going to like the fact that these 2 will be relevant again. Like Blizzard said....STAY TUNED!

Monday, February 21, 2011

Coming Tuesday there will be some changes to the LFG vote kick system.

Is this long overdue? I'm not certain this is going to be a perma fix but it will knock off some of the crap that single people who join a group will have to deal with. It will also stop t'he /2 LFG someone to que as tank, you don't have to stay" thing going on.

I really wish the Internet wasn't so anonymous and people didn't act like such ass hats while group with people they don't know. I think this might be a step in a better direction but this won't stop all silliness that goes on.

The basics of it:
Don't accept and go AFK outside the instance.
Don't que w/a tank or healer and let them leave, you are going too.
If you are with a group you need an additional person to have that kick go thru.

Something it goes on to say is patience is needed while grouping with people, which is totally true. I won't turn this in to a "this happened to me" post but last night I joined a pug and the warlock had almost as many HP's as I did. I looked he was in total PVP gear with the insignia trinket. I asked him if he had another trinket he could use.

His response: "FUCK YOU!"
"Just pull and don't worry about my gear". He was of course with 2 other guildies and they all started on me.
I asked him "was that necessary?"
I then got booted.

I didn't want to be in that run anyway.

Thoughts on the LFG vote kick changes?

Originally Posted by Bashiok (Source)
We’re making a number of hotfixes to address use of the Dungeon Finder and vote kick tools. The following hotfixes will require realm restarts to implement, which are likely to be next Tuesday’s weekly maintenance.

•Players who are outside a dungeon for more than a few minutes are now immediately able to be kicked.

•If queuing as a group with a tank or healer, and the tank or healer drops group (or is kicked) soon after joining, those that queued with them will also be removed from the dungeon.

•If three or more players group queue with each other it will require an additional vote for them to kick anyone they did not group queue with.

•If a group queue of 4 kicks the one person that they did not group queue with they will each receive a more severe penalty to their ability to initiate future kicks.

•If someone initiates a vote kick for someone they group queued with they will not incur a penalty to their ability to initiate future kicks.
With these changes we hope to reduce some undesirable behavior and annoyances, and encourage greater patience when using the Dungeon Finder. In addition, keep in mind that both initiating and agreeing to vote kick have always carried the same weight to your ability to kick in the future. It's always best to save your votes for when it really counts to ensure your ability to kick is available when it does.

We’ll of course be watching how these changes work to improve these systems, and always appreciate your feedback.
As these and other hotfixes are implemented, they'll be added to the hotfix blog - http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/2259389#blog

Sunday, February 20, 2011

I guess I'm back playing the game. I worked hard and found a guild (YAY ME) that fits what I can and want to do in game. I'm going to be as soft as I can here when I say this but the talent is a tad on the lower side. The RL is good, the healers are decent, the other tank is really good and then there is me. I don't know where I fit in this situation. They are fun people and try hard. They are not incompetent. I can be patient and enjoy playing the game for a while.

D I N G!

Really early this morning after a case of insomnia I hit level 85 on my Hunter, Zumhug. It didn't take to long, aside from the last few grueling hours of level 84.

I'm not a patient person, in game or real life. I'm not a spaz by any means so I hit 85, did CoC in Twilight Highlands to get my weapon and headed to Org to get gear. I choose to buy my way into heroic level gear. It wasn't to expensive. I had honor points so I grabbed a ring and was still 3 small points away from 329ilvl gear. I broke down and made a major purchase ((( Dragonkiller Tunic ))) I only spent 5k on it. Sounds like alot but really it was a fair price. I will probably have it til 5.0. This put me at ilvl 333. I could que for a random heroic.

Why the haste in trying to get into a heroic? Back to the impatient part but on top of that I know all the fights and I was pulling 6k to 8k DPS at level 84 in my randoms. The second to the last normal I did I was still in 232 shoulders and 245 bracers. I wanted to prove to myself I could put out better DPS in my 1st heroic less than an hour after hitting 85, than tons of the other DPS I've been unfortunate enough to tank for.

How did it go?
I pulled Deadmines as my 1st. So um, ya...WOW lots of rep and I'd be CC'n right?

Nope, we just pulled and pulled and pulled. It was like Wrath all over again. I was doing ok on the trash. Staying about 7k DPS. Then came the 1st boss. I don't like tanking that boss, the room is small and he drops aggro and I still here "Tank, should I wait longer before I DPS?" or "Are you having aggro issues?" The boss drops aggro time to time every now and then during the fight. Anyway, tank pulls and DPS opens up. I got the achievement for "ready to raid" and we downed him.

Oh, how did I do. I checked the meters. We had a Warrior, Shammy, Me for the DPS and the Warrior and Shammy hit 12k I came in last but...I did hit about 9.2K DPS. Not bad for hodge podge gear. I was pretty happy, I got a 1h weapon cause I like to dual wield so when I get another I'll go away from the 2h I have. At the end of the run, my number were 7.8k DPS overall and 8.5K to 9K dps on bosses. This wasn't bad. I could do better but I'm not a hunter expert. I don't really like to DPS.

If anyone needs hunters info I suggest this: Hunters Union. They do a really good job add a little humor and help the noob hunter like me a ton.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

I am a prot pally and I have a kick! Makes me WOOT WOOT, ok it's an interrupt but if you see the Belf animation you kick the target. I am now bad ass!

Blizz has taken us a step closer to a plate wearing rogue, holy power ramp up and kicks...

Thanks to all this wonderfulness of the gear in Cata, we as tanks have little hit. We have our kicks ( I know its not a kick but it sounds fun to say) dodge, parried or miss all together. So I as a Belf have torrent or shield to fall back on. I hope that I don't run into the "you have interrupt" situation and miss due to well, a miss. Along these lines is the fact that CS no longer generates HP if it misses or other combat fault. This has been beaten to death but is a "working as intended" by the Blizz's think tank that makes us all think that Blizz doesn't think, what do you think?

Rust or low damage?

I don't know what to think of this. I haven't tanked in about a month. Things are different now with 4.0.6 and I lack tanking experience with a DK as a the other tank. But...

I ran BH hold last night, it was 10 man and reset is today. I out geared the DK by alot. He was asking question about the fight, so I figured we might have issues on the boss. Nope, we one shot him...pretty easy too. It was a pug I was shocked.

Here is my head scratching moment thou...The other tank was killing me in threat and did about 1k more damage than me. Granted he had vengeance 1st so his damage was bigger almost the whole fight but I was really pushed to keep aggro off him. No the DPS weren't catching us and he didn't pull off me but I did use both taunts a few times just to match him.

It might be rust thou, I wasn't timing my SotR, I was tentative about pulling off him and didn't use my tools in the correct place. My goal was to stay alive and not pull off him. We did down the boss 1 shot style even thou it was BH.

My questions I've asked myself as I'm writing this -

What did I need to do different? Be more assertive, not worry about dying and worry about making the other tank work harder like I had too. More snap aggro.

What tools did I leave on the table? Use my wings, Exo (when not getting hit) and thrown Inquisition in.

How do you fix this? Knock off the rust by tanking some heroics and running a few hours of target dummy practice.

Rust is a bad thing. Glad I figured this out with a simple raid overall I was not happy with my preformace.

Back?Not sure! I miss raiding and the challenge it offers. I did find a guild more on that in a minute. I'm going and willing to give Cata another go, it wasn't the game that had me disappointed it was people I was dealing with. I'm sure it had something to do with me and where I was at personally but we shall see the future holds.

I found two really close matches to what I'm looking for. I spoke with both guilds tanking officers. It was a coin flip. Why I chose one over the other was I just felt more comfortable talking with one over the other. I will probably struggle killing things with the one I picked over the guild I didn't, but that had very little to do with my choice.

I go into this with an open mind and a willingness to wipe and have fun. For me the pressure is out of the game when it comes to progression content. I've kinda put myself in that boat with a bad guild pick and taking a break. We shall see how it goes.

Whats on the horizon?

Guild application process - how to streamline
Online gaming friendships
State of the game
and more...

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

I had a friend pointed me towards this video, its pretty funny and I can't even imagine the lag it caused the server.

300 naked orc's kill Gamon is what the video is called. Enjoy it.

Status update:

I'm still officially on a break from the game. I miss playing I don't miss the people I have run into on the game. My guess is I'll be back playing soon, my plan? not sure thou, might reroll or might play a toon I have and switch mains. No one needs tanks (k, slight overstatement) but those that do are trying to start a raiding guild or are like H4/12 and while I'm good I don't think I want to jump into this tier of raiding at the heroic level.